Monthly Archives: May 2013

David Stockman writes Sundown in America: How Crony Capitalism has Left Us State Wrecked in the 4/1/13 New York Times. Excerpts: Less than 5 percent of the $800 billion Obama stimulus went to the truly needy for food stamps, earned-income tax credits…

IRS Chief’s 118 White House Visits Must Be Explained As the Washington Examiner noted last weekend, ex-commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Douglas Shulman went to the White House some 118 times in 2010 and 2011, while Steven Miller, the…

“It’s no coincidence that the realm of crony capitalism is populated by billionaire financiers and large corporations. As the economist Will Wilkinson puts it, “The more power the government has to pick winners and losers, the more power rich people…

From Glenn Harlan Reynolds in USA Today Penalties for politicians: We entrust an inordinate amount of power to people who don’t feel any pain when we fall down. Excerpts: I’d favor some changes that put accountability back in. First, I’d…

From To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here by Peter Ferrara in Forbes.com: Booker could have been writing about Robinson when he concluded his Sunday Telegraph commentary by writing, “Has there ever in history been such an almighty…

I just watched Hating Breitbart. I miss him. What I liked most about him was that he refused to be intimidated by those who would hurl the ‘racist’ epitaph to shut someone up. I also did not know that…

from the New York Times Magazine by Naggie Koerth-Baker, Sure You Saw a Flying Saucer (hard copy) or Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories in the online version. Excerpts: Since Hofstadter’s book was published, our access to information has…

David Brooks writes The Progressive Shift in The New York Times, 3/18/13 Excerpts: The first problem, of course, is that there aren’t enough rich people to cover even the current spending plans. As an analysis by the group Third Way demonstrated, even…

Barack Obama, World’s Greatest Gun Salesman Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense Interestingly, one of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood,” which is the…

When Obama was elected his supporters dismissed the importance of experience which their candidate had little of. I am talking about the experience of leadership and running a large organization. Obama had never done this. We were to be satisfied…

“Variations also act as purges. Small forest fires periodically cleanse the system of the most flammable material, so this does not have the opportunity to accumulate. Systematically preventing forest fires from taking place “to be safe” makes the big one…

One of my favorite quotes: First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists. and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for…

Why French Kids Don’t Have ADHD The Apple Tax Diversion It’s now a crime to have good accountants Austerity and Stimulus—Two Misfires The U.S. and EU made opposing choices. Both failed because the private economy wasn’t taken into account. Partisan…

From Sultan Knish, The Obama-Media War. Excerpts: The media these days doesn’t have much. Its numbers are bad in every medium from the tube to the inky pages of newsprint to the crackling AM radio waves. It isn’t very profitable.…

“No. We just can’t trust the American people to make those types of choices … Government has to make those choices for people.” – Hillary Clinton 1993 Red tape facts: Regulatory costs are now the second largest item in a…

I meet every couple of months with a couple of small groups of diversified small businesses in the Southeast. Here is what I am hearing. Few are making any significant capital expenses. Taxes are too high and conditions are too…

John Allison When the Federal Reserve steps in and uses monetary policy to stop the downside correction process, all it achieves is to defer problems to the future and make them worse. Its action delays and distorts the natural market…

In The Most Important Thing Illuminated author and investor Howard Marks shares investment wisdom he has acquired over a lifetime. Many of his principles apply outside of the investment world. A successful investor must learn to manage risk and return.…